If someone is being persecuted for their race, ethnicity, religion, political opinion or sexuality, then they have a right to refuge. If anyone has been to Jamaica, they would know how Christian fundamentalists have gone to war against gay people. How is this different from the persecution of Palestinians by the Israeli state?

Am I the only user of Indymedia who rejects these homophobic rants? Those who advocate the exclusion and abuse of homosexuals or the criminalisation of homosexuality are neo-fascists. Why are these far-right nutters tolerated by Indymedia, which supposedly rejects persecution?

You're not alone, but (as if it was any news), we're minority. More so, we're mostly the kind of people who don't spend their time flooding websites with an unintelligent and worn-out propaganda (or plain mental sewage, as 'Disgusted' above).

"Funny", though, when I oppose US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, some people start to point out how anti-homosexual those countries are. Like UK or Finland (let alone US) were some kind of queer paradise? Or as if US forces were fighting for our cause?

I loath people who are homophobic or something similar. It started as fear, but I grew tired of running and hiding. I grew tired because it weren't no good. I was cornered, no place to hide, no way to run. So I stood up and fought back, and this is literal. I'll propably fight some day again, if certain stupid fascists won't stop pushing me around.

Them, I ask nicely, one more time: Please leave us alone.

If that's not enough, I'll fight nastly.

Don't be conned into fear and silence! The majority of people are against homophobia, just as the majority are against racism and sexism. Homophobes are a loud minority. The majority of us, gay people and those who will stand with them against homophobia, need to make some noise of our own.

This issue has been allowed to slide, and it angers me that homophobic (and sexist, incidentally) comments appear to be acceptable on IMC. I say appears, as I hope the IMC editors will prove me wrong by intervening seriously on these issues some time soon!

Please note. there have been complaints about some of the above posts requesting they be hidden mailed to  imc-uk-contact@lists.indymedia.org since they are racist or homophobic

we have tried to hide them several times but something seems to be wrong with the database

we are looking into it, please bare with us, posts like these breach the guidelines of the site and should not be tolerated here on indymedia

if you see other such posts please report them to
 imc-uk-contact@lists.indymedia.org

thanks